In the week heading into the NHL trade deadline, the Vancouver Canucks mostly accomplished what they set out to do.

The team showed more commitment to their rebuild by shipping out two veteran players with term remaining on their contracts, trading Tyler Myers to the Dallas Stars and Conor Garland to the Columbus Blue Jackets, netting two second-round picks, a third-round pick, and a fourth-round pick.

They also moved one of their pending UFAs, sending David Kämpf to the Washington Capitals for a sixth-round pick. They even found a taker for Lukas Reichel, who has been in the AHL since December, getting a sixth-round pick from the Boston Bruins.

Not only did the Canucks add some draft picks, but they also made the current team just that little bit worse, which ought to help ensure they maintain their grip on last place in the NHL, giving them the best odds at winning the draft lottery and picking first overall for the first time in franchise history.

Even if they don’t pick first, finishing last will mean they pick no later than third, so they’ll get a game-changing prospect no matter what. It’s just that getting Gavin McKenna (or, fine, Ivar Stenberg) would be significantly more game-changing.

It also wouldn’t be enough.

It’s easy to see that this is the case by looking at a couple of other recent first-overall picks: Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini.

Despite landing a franchise forward in Bedard three years ago, the Chicago Blackhawks are barely ahead of the Canucks in the standings. That might change in the future, however, as the Blackhawks have a bevy of young players joining Bedard, like Frank Nazar, Artyom Levshunov, Oliver Moore, and Sam Rinzel, with Anton Frondell and others on the way.

It’s a similar story for the San Jose Sharks, who are ahead of the Blackhawks in their rebuild, despite finding their franchise forward a year later. The Sharks have plenty of other young talent surrounding Celebrini, including first-round picks Will Smith (4th overall), William Eklund (7th overall), Michael Misa (2nd overall), and Sam Dickinson (11th overall), as well as other teams’ first-round picks acquired via trade, like Yaroslav Askarov and Shakir Mukhamadullin.

This flood of young talent for both teams was accomplished by stocking up on draft picks.

Over the past four years, the Blackhawks have made a whopping 11 picks in the first round. The Sharks aren’t quite at that level, but they’ve still made two first-round picks in each of the last three drafts. That’s not to mention the many additional picks outside of the first round made by both teams to round out their prospect pools, which were ranked first and third in the NHL heading into this season.

It’s clear that both teams knew they needed more than just Bedard and Celebrini, just like the Canucks will need more than McKenna. To quote the late, great Jason Botchford, “You need an army.”

That’s part of the issue with the Canucks’ trade deadline work. While they made some perfectly reasonable deals, they weren’t able to add any more first-round picks to the one they acquired in the Quinn Hughes trade, and they left some potential value on the table by not trading all of their pending UFAs, with Teddy Blueger and Evander Kane remaining on the Canucks’ roster.

According to Patrik Allvin, no one wanted either Blueger or Kane.

“I didn’t get any offers, so I was a little bit surprised,” said Allvin. “Those two guys have been playing really well for us. Teddy has been here for a couple of years now and is a good player on the ice and a good player off the ice for us as well. And Evander Kane is a veteran player in the league.”

While it seems unbelievable that no team would offer anything for either player, especially a solid, penalty-killing centre like Blueger, let’s choose to believe it’s true. Perhaps the Canucks made their asking price clear, and no one could meet that price, so didn’t even bother offering.

But even if no one was lining up with offers for Blueger or Kane, the bigger issue is that Allvin and his management group seemed to show little interest or desire in being more proactive to create a market for those players or do something more creative.

Consider the aforementioned Sharks and Blackhawks.

A year ago, the Sharks got a first-round pick from the Edmonton Oilers for defenceman Jake Walman. They had previously acquired Walman for literally nothing in the 2024 offseason. In fact, they got him for less than nothing, as the Detroit Red Wings gave the Sharks a second-round pick to take Walman and his contract off their hands.

The Sharks rehabilitated Walman’s reputation and ended up with a first-round pick for their troubles. That pick is in 2026, giving the Sharks yet another draft year with two first-round picks.

Then there’s the Blackhawks, who managed to turn Jason Dickinson into a first-round pick by retaining salary, including Colton Dach in the deal, and taking on Andrew Mangiapane and his $3.6 million cap hit that goes through next year.

Perhaps Mangiapane will continue to struggle in Chicago, or maybe he’ll find his game again and either become part of the Blackhawks’ future or get flipped at next year’s trade deadline for another draft pick.

Stepping away from the Sharks and Blackhawks, there’s the example of Sean Monahan and the Montreal Canadiens.

In the 2022 offseason, the Canadiens accepted a first-round pick from the Calgary Flames to take on Monahan and his $6.375 million cap hit. The cap dump paid off for the Canadiens in a big way: after Monahan put his game back together in Montreal, they traded him to the Winnipeg Jets for another first-round pick.

That’s the kind of proactive approach the Canucks need as they embark on their rebuild. They can’t afford to sit around, waiting for teams to make offers or handing the keys to players’ agents to find them a destination.

The Canucks’ front office needs a lot more wheeling and dealing, and a lot more willingness to take on bad contracts to get the pieces they need for future success.

As it is, one extra pick in the first round isn’t going to cut it.